strawberries ripening...............

the veggie bed, note artichoke (very tasty) and courgette flowers................

giant teasel flowering - sort of....................

parsley, geraniums and busy lizzie "Pastel Shades" - just looks like the old-fashioned pink one that everybody used to have to me....................

our gooseberry crop. aren't they lovely? - tasted nice too. not bad for only its second year............

patio planters. almost all the nasturtiums this year are volunteers, which makes for nice surprises as of course there's no way to know what variety they are............contrasting nicely with the Mystery Herb in the next pot. patio clematis "Arabella" just visible in the blue pot to the left, looking so happy that we're hoping she might flower....................

And from the front garden.................

marigolds "Gay Ladies" - yes, really - from the Botanics shop..............

the roasted rose

glad to see it flowering this year............i think it may have been a climbing variety called "Compassion" but not sure............runner beans in the background............

morning glory "Heavenly Blue" - certainly is...................surviving outside so far on the warm wall. its little mate "Kiss Me Quick" is climbing away in a pot next door, no sign of flowers yet but i'm hoping it will feel inspired by this one's example............

the day lilies again, showing thmselves off against a background of catmint...............

someone else in favourite sunbathing spot.....................Lysimachia "Firecracker" in background, just not quite out yet...............

this is my best side..................

frog on favourite sunbathing slate. as i approached for my daily inspection there were two sploshes, but this chap is more intrepid, or possibly more vain, and decided to wait while i went and got the camera and came back to take his picture.....................

today's results....................

compost heap 46 degrees. Michaelmas daisies now flowering. tiny squash beginning to appear, very exciting. 3 more sweet peas, 2 large strawberries yum, one gooseberry, lots more rasps. Carrie off to work with the last of the sugar snap peas (possibly...............) caraway sprouted overnight. morning glories now outside, weather immediately turned cool but they are not daunted and still flowering so far. Christmas cacti outside for summer hols. 2 frogs sunbathing side-by-side on the slate this morning, very sweet.................

hemerocallis "Catherine Woodbury".................now fully out. mystery one not out yet, the other bad is less sunny, so don't know what kind it is yet.......................

geranium "Burgundy"...................these didn't do very well last year, like many other things, and have been quite slow to get going, but very pretty so worth waiting for...............

wot a beauty.................

we have already eaten a couple of small courgettes but this one was lurking unnoticed in the veggie bed, about to become part of tonight's stir-fry............

Clematis thoughts

(on Carrie's pruning)
if i'd wanted a buzz-cut i'd have joined the Marines...................

the daily round, the common task.......................

at this time of year the garden is so active that it's time for a daily inspection. it goes like this.
1. Wake up. Prise felines off bed, make drinks, serve feline breakfast.
2. Get up, prise felines off bed again; personal grooming activities
3. Toast in greenhouse. Inspect and praise tomato plants and tender herbs.
4. Inspect containers. Admire courgette flowers and patio salads, praise and encourage geraniums, busy lizzies, morning glories etc.
5. Progress down garden. Note splooshing noises of frogs leaping from pondside sunbathing stone back into pond; wonder again why they don't get sunburn and why they haven't noticed they would be a lot safer under the water where the Kitski can't eat them. Admire planter bench and containers, praise and encourage California poppies, diascia, honeysuckle, lavender and jasmine. Read little soppy poem again. * Marvel at height of runner beans, admire flowers, do witch-in-Hansel-and-Gretel thing again over tiny beans too small to eat yet.
6. Crouch beside pond and observe frogs. Frogs crouch on stones and observe humans. Kitski sits in undergrowth tinkling slightly** and radiating hopeless longing, wondering why hunting skills seem to have gone off all of a sudden.
7. Admire beds. Dead-head roses, cornflowers etc, smell sweet peas. Note new flowers on day lilies, roses, godetias, crocosmias, rudbeckias and anything else just out or about to be out.
8. Worship veggie bed. Test temperature of compost heap (this year's record so far: 48 degrees!) Coo over veg and salads, eat bits of leaf, pick fruit.
9. Return to greenhouse and do it all again...................

*The kiss of the sun for pardon
The song of the birds for mirth
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth

........sweet, eh?

** now wearing a lovely new collar, with bells..............

first sunflower. the ones we grew from seed have not done so well this year.............probably because we waited too long to plant them out and they got all spindly. some are in a pot at the front...................but we think these are self-seeders from last year. i suppose the advantage of that is that the ones which most like the conditions will be the ones most likely to self-seed and reappear, so selecting out the best varieties for our particular soil............the sweet rocket hasn't been nearly so long-lived this year, i think it's really meant to be a biennial so maybe we should plant some now for next year.....................

Crocosmia "Lucifer" !!

meadowsweet

the first sweet pea

giant teasel...............it's the one on the right..................

runner beans doing their stuff...............

tending the veggie bed................look at those beautiful sugar snap peas!

cornflowers "tall mixed" and "polka dot". this time we actually kept the packets so it's interesting to compare the pictures on the packet with what really comes up. i can't honestly say that the flower varieties look hugely different...........the main difference is the height. one Shirley poppy is still hanging in there too..............

i think this might be one of the new lilies i planted....................only it doesn't look like any of the pictures, so maybe it's one that was moved from a container...............no idea, pretty anyway, though..............

each day a new beginning...............

or rather a new flower. the first sweet peas...........................the first sunflower.............the first godetia...............the first crocosmia.............the first California poppy (in the bed)..................rose "Curiosity" now putting up flowers, and meadowsweet fully out and giving great wafts of scent. we have a glut of salad.................lettuces bolting slightly, bulls' blood now ready to eat; the Greek cress turns out to be quite nippy so best used as an addition rather than on its own. dill and chervil sprouting, and the banana mint and mystery herb (?golden marjoram) doing OK in the greenhouse..................we also have beautiful home grown basil "Genovese", and the Thai and lemon basils are loving the warm weather. the blue morning glory is flowering indoors, and the multicoloured one "Kiss Me Quick" has just moved outside, only as far as the doorstep. runner beans now flowering, raspberries cropping heavily, and we've eaten the first gooseberry and the first blackcurrant. the day lilies have flower spikes.............we have no idea where the day lily in the perennial bed came from, or what kind it is, so that will be a nice surprise when the flowers appear......................
Carrie has tidied the pondside in an attempt to stop the Kitski from hunting the frogs, we have also put a bell on her, to which she takes great exception.............she's put in some salvias and a penstemon rescued from Morrison's to fill the gaps.................
we never say much about the front garden, but actually it looks fab...............the patio clematis "Arabella" is now racing away up the front wall and looking very well. Nigella "Persian Jewels" are on their way in a pot and in the ground...............i'v bought a climbing frame for the jaggy rose, and it would be nice to see some flowers from it.................the totally neglected rose under the tree is flowering profusely on what seems to be almost no light. a bit of tidying is needed..............the aquilegia are finished and need to be cut down, ditto Sheila's geranium...........that yellow thing i thought was a weed turns out to be "corydalis lutea" apparently..............however we do have one very large, very strong and very determined dandelion right in the middle of the bed, it is indeed a weed and it will be leaving soon............